Health workers with buckets, as part of their Ebola virus prevention protective gear, at an Ebola treatment center in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. Liberia's armed forces were given orders to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border from neighboring Sierra Leone, which is closed to stem the spread of Ebola, local newspaper Daily Observer reported Monday. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 1,200 people since it began in December 2013, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
More than 2,200 have been sickened, according to the U.N. health agency's latest numbers.
Authorities have struggled to contain the outbreak, which started in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. There are quarantines and travel restrictions for the sick and those in contact with them, sometimes including whole villages and counties, but officials warned that the restrictions have sometimes hampered food deliveries.
The U.N. World Food Program has said that it is preparing to deliver food to 1 million people over the next three months.
"I think now there is a high vigilance in all countries," Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for WHO, told reporters in Geneva. "I can't remember the last time we fed 1 million people in a quarantine situation."
Health workers receive buckets, as part of their Ebola virus prevention protective gear, at an Ebola treatment center in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. Liberia's armed forces were given orders to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border from neighboring Sierra Leone, which was closed to stem the spread of Ebola, local newspaper Daily Observer reported Monday. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)
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WHO says Ebola has killed more than 1,200 (2014, August 19)
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